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Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern
And to their proper operation still,
Afcribe all Good; to their improper Ill.

all:

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the foul;
Reafon's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end:

NOTES.

55

60

Fix'd

there can poffibly be fuppofed in a creature fuch an affection towards felf-good, as is actually, in its natural degree, conducing to his private interest, and at the fame time inconfiftent with the public good; this may indeed be called ftill a vitious affection. And on this supposition a creature cannot really be good and natural in refpect of his fociety or public, without being ill and unnatural towards himself. But if the affection be then only injurious to fociety when it is immoderate, and not fo when it is moderate, duly tempered, and allay'd, then is the immoderate degree of the affection truly vicious, but not the moderate. Characteristics, vol. ii. p. 22. He had faid before, vol. i. p. 120. fpeaking of those who had written on Self-love, "If these gentlemen who delight so much in the play of words, but are cautious how they grapple closely with definitions, would tell us only what Selfintereft was, and would determine Happiness and Good, there would be an end of this enigmatical wit." See alfo pages 78, 79, 80, 87, 139, 140, of volume the fecond. Pope does not appear to have read, though published before this Essay, Hutchefon's admirable Illlustrations and Defence of the Moral Sense, and his fine Treatife on the Paffions. Burtamaqui's work, Principes du Droit Natural, was not yet published, by which our Author might have profited much.

VER. 59. Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the foul;] The Poet proceeds (from Ver. 58 to 67.) more minutely to mark out the diftinct offices of these two Principles, which offices he had before affigned only in general; and here he fhews their neceffity; for without Self-love, as the Spring, Man would be unactive: and without Reafon, as the balance, active to no purpose.

W.

Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar fpot,

To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;

Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, 65 Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

Most strength the moving principle requires:
Active its task, it prompts, impels, infpires.
Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies,

Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise.
Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason's at diftance, and in prospect lie:
That fees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the confequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,

At beft more watchful this, but that more ftrong.

The action of the stronger to fufpend

Reafon ftill ufe, to Reason still attend.

Attention, habit and experience gains;

70

75

Each strengthens Reason, and Self-love reftrains. 80 Let fubtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight, More ftudious to divide than to unite;

NOTES.

And

VER. 81. Let fubtle schoolmen, &c.] From this description of Self-love and Reafon it follows, as the Poet obferves (from Ver. 80 to 93.) that both confpire to one end, namely, human happinefs, though they be not equally expert in the choice of the means; the difference being this, that the first haftily seizes every thing which hath the appearance of good; the other weighs and examines whether it be indeed what it appears.

This fhews, as he next obferves, the folly of the schoolmen, who confider them as two oppofite principles, the one good and the other evil. The obfervation is feasonable and judicious; for this dangerous fchool-opinion gives great fupport to the Mani

chean

And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason split,
With all the rash dexterity of wit.

85

Wits, juft like Fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire;
But greedy That, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: 90
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

95

III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may call : 'Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all: But fince not ev'ry good we can divide, And Reafon bids us for our own provide; Paffions, though selfish, if their means be fair, Lift under Reason, and deferve her care; Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's name.

100

In

VARIATION S.

After Ver. 86. in the MS.

Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reason puzzled schools,
Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught-

NOTES.

chean or Zoroastrian error, the confutation of which was one of the Author's chief ends in writing. For if there be two principles in Man, a good and evil, it is natural to think him the joint product of the two Manichean Deities (the first of which contributed to this Reason, the other to his Paffions) rather than the creature of one Individual Caufe. This was Plutarch's opinion, and, as we may fee in him, of some of the more ancient theistical Philofophers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobate and fubvert a notion that ferved to the fupport of fo dangerous an error: And this the Poet hath done with much force and clearness. W.

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In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast

Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But ftrength of mind is Exercife, not Reft:
The rising tempeft puts in act the foul,
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.

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NOTES.

105

On

VER. 101. In lazy Apathy] Swift obferves, that "the Stoical fcheme of fupplying our wants by lopping off our paffions, is like cutting off our legs for want of fhoes." How easy is it to expofe affertions which were never afferted; to refute tenets which were never held; to become St. George when we make our own dragons? What fays old Epictetus, who knew Stoicifm better than these men? δεν " I είναι ΑΠΑΘΗ ὡς Ανδριάνα, &c. με am not to be Apathetic, or void of paffions, like a ftatue. I am to discharge all the relations of a focial and friendly life, the parent, the husband, the brother, the magiftrate." These words are copied from a valuable manufcript of my late excellent friend James Harris, Efq. author of Hermes, and other admirable treatifes. Perhaps a ftronger example cannot be found, of taking notions upon truft without any examination, than the universal cenfure that has been passed upon the Stoics, as if they constantly and ftrenuously inculcated a total infenfibility with respect to paffion, to which these lines of Pope allude; when it is certain the Stoics meant only, a freedom from ftrong perturbation, from irrational and exceffive agitations of the foul; and no more.

VER. 105. The rifing tempeft puts in a&t the foul,] As it was from obfervation of the evils occafioned by the paffions, that the Stoics thus extravagantly projected their extirpation, the Poet recurs (from Ver. 104 to 111.) to his grand principle fo often before, and to fo good purpofe, infifted on, that partial Ill is univerfal Good; and fhews, that though the tempeft of the paffions, like that of the air, may tear and ravage fome few parts of nature in its paffage, yet the falutary agitation produced by it preferves the Whole, in life and vigour. This is his firft argument against the Stoics, which he illuftrates by a very beautiful fimilitude, on a hint taken from Scripture:

"Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,
He mounts the ftorm, and walks

upon

the wind."

W.

From

On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,

Reason the card, but paffion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,

He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110

Paffions,

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 108. in the MS.

A tedious Voyage! where how useless lies
The compass, if no pow'rful gufts arise?

NOTES.

From factions, and ferments, and political agitations, and com motions, and wars, arise the most striking and vigorous exertions of the human mind. Witness what happened in Greece, and Rome, and modern Italy; in France after the league; and in England after, and in, our civil war. Great occafions call forth great and latent abilities; and every man becomes capable of every exertion. A Socrates and a Sophocles were found, alone, in the time of Themiftocles and Thrafybulus. The dead calm of defpotism, in such a government as China, for instance, crushes and overwhelms all effort and all emulation.

VER. 108. Reafon the card,] This paffage is exactly copied from Fontenelle, tom. i. p. 109.

Si la raifon

"Ce font les paffions qui font et qui defont tout. dominoit fur la terre, il ne s'y pafferoit rien. On dit que les pilotes craignent au dernier point ces mers pacifiques, ou l'ont ne peut naviger, et qu'ils veulent du vent, au hazard d'avoir des tempêtes. Les paffions font chez des hommes des vents qui font neceffaires, pour mettre tout en mouvement, quoiqu'ils causent souvent les orages." He had alfo copied Fontenelle before, in Epiftle i. v. 290.

All chance direction which thou canst not fee, "Tout eft hazard dans le monde, pourvû que l'on donne ce nom que l'on ne connoit point." Tom. i. p. 81.

ordre

à un
VER. 109. Nor God alone in the still calm we

find,

He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.]

The translator turns it thus,

"Dieu lui-même, Dieu fort de fon profond repos." And so, makes an Epicurean God, of the Governor of the Univerfe. M. De Croufaz does not fpare this expreffion of God's

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